HW: 25 Summary

The forward of Riverbend’s Baghdad Burning, is well written by Ahdaf Soueif. Souief reports that Riverbend is an Iraqi citizen that has almost lost everything due to the war and is looking for refuge in her blog posts. She agrees with Riverbend in her opinion of the US and their involvement in Iraq. Soueif claims that the novel lacks geopolitical perspective; this is for good reason because Iraq is the setting of the book and opinions don’t venture outside of Iraq. She counters by reminding us that the mass media is full of outsiders opinions but what they don’t have is an insider in Iraq that can repot how the war Actually feels (Forward: viii-ix).
James Ridgeway the author of the introduction to Baghdad Burning. He believes that the US has been causing unnecessary casualties ever since the Persian Gulf War (Ridgeway: xiv). Giving a brief background on the past wars fought in Iraq, He basically argues that the US has been greedy for oil for decades and it has diminished Iraq’s economy and infrastructure. This is a reasonable argument considering three-quarters of Iraq’s GDP comes from oil (Ridgeway: xv). Violence and destruction are the main reasons why electricity is scarce throughout Iraq. Power may turn on once a day or week or, the US doesn’t give Iraq time to rebuild there grid. Also Ridgeway reports that 2004 1,000 Iraqi schools were in need of repair. The education budget was not enough to repair the schools, the teachers pay ate most of the budget (Ridgeway: xix). In conclusion Ridgeway underlines the religious battles that are being fought in Iraq. He informs the reader that Riverbend gives us a far better understanding of the religious hardships than the American Government (Ridgeway: xxii).